Opening ceremony (photo by Liu Tao)
On the morning of March 22, the cultural experience park in Shayang, Jingmen witnessed the opening of 14th Jingmen-Shayang Rape Flower Tourism Festival. Themed on “growing rape to boost rural revitalization”, the festival was hosted by People’s Government of Jingmen city and undertaken by Jingmen Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shayang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and People’s Government of Shayang county. The attendees included leaders from Hubei Provincial Rape Office, Food Administration of Hubei Province, Oil Crops Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural sciences, Jingmen Municipal Party Committee and Government. Meanwhile, three leaders from HZAU was invited to participate in the opening ceremony, including Gao Chi, secretary of the Party Committee, Fu Tingdong, the member of Chinese Academy of Engineering and the chief academician of “515” Initiative that utilizes science and technology to develop agriculture of Hubei rapeseed industrial chain, Yao Jianglin, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and vice president.
The two parties sign an agreement (photo by Liu Tao)
Jingmen’s Mayor Li Tao gives a certificate of honor to academician Fu Tingdong (photo by Liu Tao)
At the opening ceremony, HZAU reached an agreement with People’s Government of Jingmen city to jointly build an industrial technology transformation center, and signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with People’s Government of Shayang county. Li Tao (deputy secretary of Jingmen Municipal Committee and mayor), awarded the certificate for “Honorary Citizen of Jingmen City” to academician Fu Tingdong.
Fu Tingdong delivers a speech(photo by Liu Tao)
When receiving the certificate, academician Fu Tingdong said this was not only the honor of himself, but also the honor of the rape research team of HZAU. In the future, the cooperation with Jingmen will be largely deepened. He reviewed the 50-year history of exchanges and cooperation between our rapeseed team and Jingmen, and hoped the younger generation could continue this collaboration and manage to do better.
Academician Fu Tingdong said General Secretary Xi Jinping recently proposed that “the overall agricultural arrangement should be optimized by stabilizing the production of grain and corn while expanding the planting of soybean and oil seed crops”, which brought new requirements and the development direction for rapeseed production. Academician Fu Tingdong emphasized rape was the top oil crop in China and the only oil crop in winter. It can be mechanized in the whole process with oil as the major output, and can be used in multiple functions to produce vegetables, flowers, honey, fodder and fertilizer. According to Fu Tingdong, since rape can exert appreciable economic, ecological and social benefits, we should join our hands to further explore the potential of expanding rapeseed production and make greater contributions to the construction of beautiful countryside and rural revitalization.
Fu Tingdong gives a report (photo by Liu Tao)
In the afternoon, at the Rape Industry Summit in Jingmen, Academician Fu Tingdong gave a report entitled “New Progress in Genetic Improvement of Rape Varieties”. According to him, Chin’s rape seed industry is in a world-leading position in the field of breeding, and rape is the most potential crop for multi-functional utilization.
Fu Tingdong noted it was possible to expand rapeseed production. The key method to improve the cost-effectiveness of oil planting lies in saving cost, enhancing quality, expanding production capacity, improving processing and branding. This will help boost people’s enthusiasm for oil planting. His suggestions are to make full use of winter fallow fields, orchards and woodlands to plant fodder (green manure) rape, in addition to developing livestock, poultry and fish farming. If accepted by more farmers, fodder rape may become a new economic growth point in some villages.
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2022/0323/62802.shtml
Translated by: Wang Yuying
Supervised by: Jin Bei
